I Was Denied A Job Because I’m In A Fraternity

I’m a stone’s throw from my degree. This summer has been lame duck week after lame duck week, chasing entry level jobs to start building relevant experience. I’ve done plenty of odd jobs for family and my landlords to make enough money to float my car bills and rent while I turn over a mountain of cover letters. After a month and a half of refreshing Indeed.com, I gave up searching for something in my field. Landing a relevant position is tremendously difficult without that paper, and I couldn’t afford to work unpaid this summer.

I finally put my pride aside and turned to lesser jobs around the township. I was a supervisor at a nearby amusement park for nearly half a decade between high school and the waxing years of my undergraduate career, and decided I would call upon that experience to hopefully land me a manager job. I applied for a gig posted online and immediately received my call back. True to my unfounded, 23-year-old arrogance, I knew the position was mine for the taking.

The first interview went very smoothly. The GM, a girl a few years older than me who also studied business, liked me right away. The majority of the interview didn’t even pertain to the job. She asked me off-topic questions about college sports and my freshman year garage band. She was fairly attractive, and I was dressed to kill. She smiled often, as did I. She wrapped up the interview not terribly long after it began.

A week of odd jobs passed before she finally called me back, contritely, to tell me she couldn’t set up a second interview with the district manager within a reasonable time frame. Therefore, my second interview would take place 40 miles away with the district manager’s heir apparent. The GM scheduled the second round interview for 9:30 a.m. on a weekday, but apparently mixed the time up with the assistant DM. I arrived an hour earlier than he expected. Following the inauspicious start, things got even worse.

I sat down with the guy in a secluded, sunny corner of the building, ready to charm his dick off like I’d done in nearly every other interview to date.

He was a tall, slim man with fierce, cerulean eyes, a prevailing lisp and some decidedly effeminate mannerisms. Most notably, he sat with his legs crossed. Not one leg over the other, like a smug Bill Clinton leaning back in his office chair afterhaving paid for the best escort service of his life. No, criss-cross applesauce, like a hippie teen girl with the contours of an acoustic guitar straddling the top of her topmost thigh.

I slid two copies of my resume across the table with a confident, wry smile. He skimmed the education and work, paying my impressive experiences little mind. Then, he stopped at the bottom where I had my affiliations listed. He skipped over my time as a commuter mentor. He ignored the two honor societies that still send me emails. He was fixed on the segment that said “Member and Former Vice President of New Member Education,” followed by my letters.

It was obvious he didn’t like fraternities. He launched into the typical questions, to which I gave him some pretty reticent answers. First, he asked if I knew the stigma of being Greek. I coyly told him if there was a stigma, I was either blissfully unaware or just didn’t pay it any mind. I paid the same, oft-practiced normal lip service, hearkening back to my pledge semester: “They’re the best guys I’ve ever met” and “they’re not like the guys you see on TV and in movies.” He prodded about our discipline record and how often we partied.

Suddenly, I found myself getting uncomfortable. My unwavering confidence became increasingly timorous. He told me fraternal men drink to excess and “frat people” he worked alongside in the past were irresponsible, often truant and largely disrespectful towards authority. He questioned my commitment to owners and the brand. He was leery of my ability to uphold the business’ friendly image and briskly asked if I had any questions for him.

I asked about the company’s expectations for their managers, trying to direct the interview away from my fraternity. With eyes burning a hole in my face, he told me they care “deeply about mutual respect” and keeping managers from fraternizing with subordinates. They emphasize professionalism. His inflection and stare stressed every facet of his expectations that were inconsistent with his impression of me. A few moments later, the longest and most uncomfortable interview of my life was called.

He stood up, without changing his expression, and extended a hand. “Thank you so much for coming in today. I appreciate it – I really do.” I reciprocated with a strangling handshake and set apace for the nearest door.

For the first time ever, I was regarded with contempt for representing a fraternity. This man genuinely disliked what he believed I stood for. My experiences, my education, my composure, my references… none of it meant shit to this guy. As long I championed the maxims of friendship, morality and literature, I, and men of my ilk, need not apply..

Here Before I saw the check which was of 14750 dollar , I didn’t believe that…my… mother in law woz like realey bringing in money part time at their laptop.. there great aunt haz done this 5 only 21 months and resently paid for the morgage on there condo and got a great new Mercedes-Benz S-class…
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You gotta leave. You reply to the top comment every time and it’s never even halfway decent. Just delete the app or actually just stick your phone in the sink and leave the water running. Thanks in advance

” First, he asked if I knew the stigma of being Greek. I coyly told him if there was a stigma, I was either blissfully unaware or just didn’t pay it any mind. ”

So you lied to the guy? A better answer would have been that you are aware of the stereotype but found it wasn’t true in your experience. Then tell them about what frat life meant to you. Flip the script and educate rather than deny.

He thought you were oblivious or a liar. Either one is a great reason not to hire you.

Probably didn’t help that he was trying to get in the first interviewer’s pants so hard that she ended the interview early to get him out of her office. At least that’s what I take from “he told me they care “deeply about mutual respect” and keeping managers from fraternizing with subordinates.” The only thing undercutting that theory is that they scheduled the second interview.

Plus, he sounds like a big enough douche that he probably went to the interview hung over.

Both reasons are still derived from his preconceived notions of Greek life. Imagine he was grilling me for being a member of the NRA. I could take that to Fox and have a fucking field day. O’Reilly would want me on later that day. The whole ordeal really felt like a lineup, as in it didn’t seem to matter what I said, I was going to be wrong.

He judged you as a douchebag, hard-drinking, anti-authoritarian “Frat Bro” who would spend his time trying to suck up to management rather than trying to help the company (I’m not saying you are, that’s just how he saw you). You judged him to be a lisping, effeminate, legs-crossing (translation: Gay) person. Unfortunately, it was his judgement that mattered. But think about this: if the roles had been reversed, would you have hired him? Obviously, the way he talked meant much more to you than what he had to say. Did you even bother to research what the company does, who the managers are, what your role would be? Did you look the guy up on LinkedIn before the interview? Did you prepare something about how you could help the company, and about how everything on your resume helped prepare you for this job? The point of your resume is to communicate the experiences that have prepared you for the job, not to brag about how many pledges you educated. If your fraternity affiliation did not help you prepare for the job, then it shouldn’t be on your resume. If it did help you prepare for the job, then you should have been able to communicate that to him.

You reinforced the preconceived notion with your response. Put yourself in his seat. He saw a guy who was so arrogant that he denied their was a stereotype about frats and then you expected him to still give you a job? Congrats on reinforcing his stereotype. You couldn’t have handled this much worse.

This article sounds like the guy on the street corner who claims he didn’t get a job because he was black when in reality it is because he showed up 30 minutes late smoking a crack pipe having forgot to brush his tooth that morning.

It’s only really a good idea to put exec board positions on a resume if you were the president, treasurer, or philanthropy. Having pledge Ed on your resume just says you’re good at harassing the people you’re in charge of

Risk Management can work too. You can typically add some bullshit about contracting third party security and coordinating with venue management that shows an actual skill (even if it’s rarely needed). And if the interview is going well you can throw in some humor about handling herds of drunk college kids

Definitely make the title as formal as you can. Chairman is better than chair. But don’t leave the title off and just include a description like Henry_Eighth is saying.
As for including it, is organizing large groups of people part of the job description? Then yes. Marketing job? You can try to sell the party promotion side as a real skill. Like any resume item, if it doesn’t apply to the job you’re applying for or show that you’re outstanding, don’t include it.

Get a different job. Never be a victim. I know an alumni of my fraternity who was fired from his job once. He didn’t complain he went out started his own business, bought the company and fired his old boss who had fired him. That’s the frat thing to do.

What a pathetic article. Problem #1 – You weren’t interviewing for a Fortune 500 job/internship so you suck at marketing yourself. Problem #2 – You denied that you knew there were stigmas against Greek Life and made it sound like you live underneath a rock. Problem #3 – You call yourself a New Member Educator yet you sell your program on phrases like “They’re the best guys I’ve ever met” when talking about your fraternity. Anybody in any fraternity in America can say that and your pledges were probably pathetic because of it and left having no idea how to recruit. You are interviewing for a management position and should have sold him on that all your 20-30 New Members were trained by you in learning about resume building, professional dress, etc in your new member fast track for success program to the point that this dude wanted a bid. Problem #4 – You should have pulled a power move and said you were not interested in the position anymore at the very end and put that dude in his place.

Maybe he Googled you five minutes before you walked in his door and figured out that you write here, confirming all his memories of homophobic frat boys back in the day when he went to college.

Maybe your obvious judgment of him as being gay came through to him loud and clear, whether or not he actually was.

Maybe you relied on your perception of him as being gay and tried to flirt with him, just like you did with the first interviewer and a) he isn’t gay, b) he was annoyed by how mindlessly stupid that was, c) he doesn’t favor ugly idiots, d) all of the above and you pissed him off in a few other ways too.

Lots of buzz words in there…. 5 years at an amusement park. So his Summer job was selling cotton candy? Also why 5 years to graduate (unless hard major). What was his major? He mentions business once, but what was it. If he’s so intent on staring at this guy’s legs and how he crossed them he was probably putting out his own homophobic vibes. …etc, etc,
But most important, millennial man, you don’t always get your trophy every time! Sometimes you interview and they just don’t like you or think you’re the right person for the job. (I’ve interviewed numerous people where I knew after 5 minutes I wasn’t going to hire him or her).

You shouldn’t put your fraternity on your resume unless you held a high position like President, VP, or Treasurer. A lot of employers weren’t associated with any Greek life so all they know about it is what they see on the news which is mostly negative. Its generally a good idea to leave it off and avoid any possibility of putting off the interviewer.

We’re in a day and age where everyone whines when we’re not all “equal” in standing; everyone has to win a medal and a trophy and earn 20 dollars an hour. Because fraternity men represent the best of the best, we’re viewed as elitist and exclusive and that’s just not okay in today’s society. It’s a sad day when you have to think twice about putting your fraternity down as reference

Attitudes like this is why the guy didn’t get a job. Being in a fraternity doesn’t mean you’re better than shit, stop thinking that. Being in a fraternity means you (probably) had more fun in college, more close friends, and better networking. The kids that slip through the cracks and act like just because they got letters they became the cream of the crop like goddamn Navy SEALs is what is wrong with fraternity reputation. I can’t stand the vaping Bernie supporting hipsters, but aside from them I know plenty of GDI’s I’d chill with any day of the week over probably 25% of frat guys out there. And those bottom tier idiots are always the first ones to point out that they’re in a fraternity, because its all they have going.